Unreal Engine 4 Communicate with Python

Sorry for my bad English. :)

Since UE4 can't have multiple sessions on one GSI(Game Server Instance), we need to use multiple GSIs to meet players' requirements.

Then we face a problem, how we gonna manange these game server instances?

The ideal way is make a master server in charge of :

• Spawn GSI.
• Communcate with GSI.
• Supervise on GSIs status, such as CPU, memory, bandwidth usage, how many players.
• Shutdown GSI.
• And etc.

But, how to build this master server?

Use UE4 to create one? Maybe. How about use python. Assume we created a Python Master Server and all the GSIs are its Nodes, and first step we need to figure out is how can we make UE4 communicate with Python?

There're some links here and there, some of them obsoleted, and some of them just not work, that's why this simple echo example come out.

Requirements

• Unreal Engine 4.14.3
• Python 2.7.13

What's in the project?

• UE4 TCP Server <-> Python Simple Client
• UE4 TCP Client <-> Python Simple Server

How to test it?

1. Clone or just download project zip file.

git clone https://github.com/hexcola/UE4_Communicate_With_Python.git

2. Go to UE4_Network_Socket folder, which is the root of UE4 project, find UE4_Network_Socket.uproject and right click choose Generate Visual Studio project files.

3. Open UE4_Network_Socket.sln solution, and build UE4_Network_Socket, after that, open this project with UE4 editor.

You should only care about 5 files: ActorTCPClient.h, ActorTCPClient.cpp, ActorTCPServer.h, ActorTCPServer.cpp and the UE4_Network_Socket.Build.cs which add Sockets and Networking dependencies.

4. There're two maps, TCP_Server, TCP_Client, simple enought since both of them just have one actor.
   • If you treate UE4 instance as tcp server, then open TCP_Server map, and hit the Play button, then use Python simple_tcp_client.py to connect
   • If you treate UE4 instance as tcp client, then fisrt use Python simple_tcp_server.py to launch the tcp server, then open TCP_Client map, hit the play button to connect.

Reference

• Copy the entire url and open: https://wiki.unrealengine.com/TCP_Socket_Listener,_Receive_Binary_Data_From_an_IP/Port_Into_UE4,_%28Full_Code_Sample)
• Communication Between UE4 and a Python UDP Server
• Sending Data to Python From UE4 via TCP or UDP, partial success requesting help